Jamison

Lisa Jamison sued Drs. Stuart Lindsay and Charles Hanford for medical malpractice. Trial by jury resulted in a special verdict determining that neither Lindsay nor Hanford had been negligent. The court rendered judgment on the verdict, and the present appeal ensued.

Appellant consulted respondent Hanford, an obstetrician and gynecologist, for examination of a pelvic mass. Dr. Hanford examined appellant, then aged 16, and determined that she probably had a tumor in her right ovary. A few days later he performed surgery. He removed appellant’s right ovary and a large cystic mass, and sent the growth to the hospital’s pathology department. Appellant Lindsay, the chief pathologist, shortly informed Dr. Hanford by intercom that the mass was a benign teratoma.

Dr. Lindsay had seen that the teratoma contained both mature and immature tissue (“tissue that looks like the normal tissue of a fetus”). He knew that for many years there had been divergent opinions among pathologists as to whether immature tissue in a teratoma is potentially malignant. Dr. Lindsay believed that such tissue is not malignant; he did not tell Dr. Hanford that the teratoma contained some immature tissue…